Techniques for estimating demographic information

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, techniques are provided for estimating demographic information. A current device demographic profile for a mobile device is retrieved. An estimated geographic location of the mobile device and a time at which the mobile device visited the estimated geographic location is determined. Based on this, a location demographic profile for a geographic area that includes the estimated geographic location and for a time frame that includes the determined time is retrieved. The current device demographic profile for the mobile device is updated based on the location demographic profile. Further, the location demographic profile is updated based on a plurality of device demographic profiles of a plurality of mobile devices that visit geographic locations within the geographic area, the plurality of mobile devices including the mobile device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/901,822, filed on May 24, 2013, entitled Method and Systems forPrivacy Preserving Mobile Demographic Measurement of Individuals, Groupsand Locations Over Time and Space, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/530,566, filed on Jun. 22, 2012, entitled Methodof and Systems for Privacy Preserving Mobile Demographic Measurement ofIndividuals, Groups and Locations Over Time and Space, which claims thebenefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 61/499,975, filed on Jun. 22, 2011, entitled Method of andSystems for Privacy Preserving Mobile Demographic Measurement ofIndividuals, Groups and Locations Over Time and Space, each hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/252,685, entitled Method of and System for Estimating TemporalDemographics of Mobile Users, filed Oct. 4, 2011, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,606,294, which is incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of Invention

The present disclosure is in the field of demographic, psychographic,and behavioral profiling of individuals and locations based on mobiledevice movement. The present disclosure includes methods of obtainingboth individual and location profiles while preserving the privacy ofthe individuals.

Description of Related Art

Advertisers, marketers, and businesses attempt to match their productswith the most likely buyers of the product. In order to do this, theyuse information such as the age, the buying power, the activities, andmany other demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information on anindividual or a group of individuals to ensure the best target audiencefor their product.

Traditionally in the US, demographic information has been provided bythe US Census. This information attempts to measure many attributes ofsmall geographical areas based on household data. This provides a baselevel of demographic information related to the persons who live in agiven area. Over the years, various methods and information sources havebeen proposed and used to enhance the accuracy and specificity withwhich this information can be applied to individuals and groups.

Web sites and online web usage tracking has added a new dimension to thetoolbox for these would-be marketers. By utilizing techniques such asbrowser ‘cookies’, the profile of an online user can be augmented basedon their online behavior and the sites that they visit.

As more and more people make use of smart phones and other mobiledevices equipped with the capability to determine location, yet anotherset of identifiable information can be added to the mix. In particular,the time and location of the device itself can be used to estimate manycharacteristics of that device's user. By determining the demographicsof the locations, venues, and times at which these destinations arevisited, it is possible to build more detailed estimations of theindividual's demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics(See US 2002/0111172 A1, DeWolf, et al).

At the same time, by analyzing the various device profiles at a givenplace and time, the class or classes of people that are at a locationcan be computed. This becomes a demographic profile of that place at agiven time.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the term “demographic profile”refers to a set of attributes describing the user of a device (thedevice demographic profile, or DDP) or the group of people that visit aparticular location (the location demographic profile, or LDP). This setof attributes may include, but is not limited to, age, gender, ethnicbackground, income, years of education, as well as behavioraldescriptors, such as “frequent traveler” or “retail shopper”

Demographic profile data for where people live (the LDP) has been widelyavailable for decades. Direct marketing firms and others have compileddata from public and private sources to build profiles of neighborhoods.Public data sources include the U.S. Census, public record filings abouthome purchases, and records on public infrastructure such as watersystems. Private sources include shipping and purchase records, magazineand newspaper subscriptions, and voluntary surveys.

LDPs are available for nearly every residential block in the U.S. Somevendors of demographic profile information further categorizeneighborhoods according to the mix of different behavioral types basedon the mix of these attributes—labeling combinations of attributes withnames like “urban achievers.” Together these data sources have givenmarketers a way to target households for various offers by direct mailand telephone, providing vendors an easy way to send their catalogs onlyto highly educated parents under 45 who live in the suburbs, forexample.

While much is known about the LDP of a block of homes, which can becharacterized as the static or unchanging demographic profile of aplace, it has been discovered that little is known about where thepeople living there go during the day, which can be characterized as thedynamic or changing LDP. Some companies have surveyed users to determinethis information, and extrapolated from these limited samples. This cangive some broad general understanding of where some people work duringthe day, but cannot resolve how the LDP changes during the day, or overthe course of a week, for example. Commercial and urban areas inparticular, where the demographic mix changes significantly with time ofday or day of week, cannot be described by current demographic profiledata sources. Companies evaluating these areas for retail expansion oroutdoor advertising have very little information on which to base largefinancial commitments.

User demographic profiles, not associated with one's home, arefrequently collected using purchasing and shipping records, web browsinghistories, and other records related to computer usage. An example ofthis is the user profile data collected in web browser “cookies”, whichare special files many web sites use to store information about usersbased on pages they have visited. These files are stored on the user'scomputer and submitted to the site with every page request or view.Online user demographic profiles are generally computed withoutconsidering their location or their current activity.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the invention features methods of and systems for privacypreserving mobile demographic measurement of individuals, groups andlocations over time and space.

In another aspect of the invention, a method of estimating demographicinformation associated with a user of a mobile device while preservingthe privacy of the user based at least in part on a location estimate ofthe mobile device of the user includes receiving an estimatedgeographical location of the mobile device of the user and receiving atime at which the mobile device was at the estimated geographicallocation. The method also includes providing a set of substituteidentifiers for a corresponding set of at least one geographical area,assigning one of the set of substitute identifiers for the geographicalarea corresponding to the geographical location of the mobile device,and assigning a substitute identifier for the time at which the mobiledevice was at the estimated geographical location. The method furtherincludes providing an association between the substitute identifiers forgeographical areas and demographic information corresponding to thesubstituted geographical area and estimating demographic informationassociated with the user of the mobile device based on the assignedsubstitute identifiers and based on the demographic informationassociated with the provided set of substitute identifiers.

In a further aspect of the invention, the method further includesestimating the received geographical location associated with the mobiledevice of the user.

In yet another aspect of the invention, the method includes recordingthe estimated demographic information associated with the user of themobile device in a device demographic information log. Optionally, themethod also includes estimating demographic information associated withat least one geographical area of the set of geographical areas based onthe demographic information recorded in the device demographicinformation log. The device demographic information log contains aplurality of records of estimated demographic information associatedwith a plurality of mobile devices.

In another aspect of the invention, the method includes sending theestimated demographic information to the mobile device.

In still a further aspect of the invention, the substitute identifierfor the geographical area corresponding to the geographical location ofthe mobile device that is assigned identifies a particular set ofdemographic information.

In an aspect of the invention, the substitute identifier for thegeographical area corresponding to the geographical location of themobile device that is assigned is reduced in specificity relative to theestimated geographical location of the mobile device.

In another aspect of the invention, the substitute identifier for thetime at which the mobile device was at the estimated geographic locationis a measure of time that is reduced in specificity relative to the timethat was received. Optionally, the substitute identifier for the time atwhich the mobile device was at the estimated geographic location is arepresentation of time lacking date information, a time range, and/or anhour of a week designation.

In still another aspect of the invention, the estimating demographicinformation associated with the user of the mobile device is performedon a separate computer system from a computer system performing any oneor a subset of the other steps. Optionally, the separate computersystem, relative to the computer system performing any one or a subsetof the other steps, is maintained in a separate network, maintained in aseparate building, and/or maintained by a separate operational entity.

In another aspect of the invention, a method of estimating demographicinformation associated with a geographical area and a time period basedon demographic information associated with users of mobile deviceswithin the geographical area includes providing a set of geographicalareas and providing a set of time periods. The method also includesreceiving an estimated geographical location of a mobile device of theuser, receiving a mobile device identifier that is associated with themobile device, and receiving a time at which the mobile device was atthe estimated geographical location. The method further includesdetermining the geographical area of the set in which the estimatedgeographical location occurs, determining the time period of the set inwhich the time at which the mobile device was at the estimatedgeographical location occurs, and retrieving information representativeof demographic information associated with the user of the mobile devicebased on the mobile device identifier. The method also estimatesdemographic information associated with the determined geographic areaduring the determined time period based on the retrieved informationrepresentative of demographic information associated with the user ofthe mobile device.

In a further aspect of the invention, the method also includesestimating the received geographical location of the mobile device ofthe user.

In still another aspect of the invention, the method also includesproviding a set of initial demographic information associated with thedetermined geographical area. The estimating demographic informationassociated with the determined geographic area is further based on theinitial demographic information. Optionally, the method also includes,subsequent to the estimating demographic information associated with thedetermined geographical area, adjusting the initial demographicinformation based on the estimated demographic information. Alsooptionally, the initial demographic information is based on governmentalcensus information, public record information, shipping and purchaserecords, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, voluntary surveys, and/orrecords of social media activity.

In yet another aspect of the invention, the method also includes sendingthe estimated demographic information to the mobile device.

In another aspect of the invention, the geographical areas of the setare reduced in specificity relative to the estimated geographicallocation of the mobile device.

In a further aspect of the invention, the time periods of the set arereduced in specificity relative to the time that was received.Optionally, the time periods of the set are a representation of timelacking date information, a time range, and/or an hour of a weekdesignation.

In still another aspect of the invention, the estimating demographicinformation associated with the determined geographic area during thedetermined time period is performed on a separate computer system from acomputer system performing any one or a subset of the other steps.Optionally, the separate computer system, relative to the computersystem performing any one or a subset of the other steps is maintainedin a separate network, maintained in a separate building, and/ormaintained by a separate operational entity.

In another aspect of the invention, the method also includes performingselected steps a plurality of times for different mobile devices ofdifferent users and recording sets of information for the determinedgeographical areas, determined time periods, and retrieved informationrepresentative of demographics information associated with the users ofthe mobile devices in a device demographic information log. Theestimating demographic information associated with the determinedgeographical area during the determined time period is further based ona plurality of the sets of information in the device demographicinformation log.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a general flow chart of the process of embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a deployment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of a detailed example of demographic profileretrieval as deployed on a mobile computing device as per FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows a detailed view of one implementation of data storage onthe server for embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a detailed view of one implementation of data storage onthe server for embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of the process of retrieving the demographicattributes of a given location for a specific time;

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of one embodiment of the process to computethe Location Demographic Profiles;

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of one embodiment of the process to computethe Device Demographic Profiles as deployed according to FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of a deployment of the presentinvention in which the Mobile Computing Device requires little to nomodification;

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of a detailed example of demographicprofile retrieval as deployed on a remote location server as per FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment of a flow chart of the process tocompute the Device Demographic Profiles as deployed according to FIG. 8;

FIGS. 11A and 11B depict an illustrative embodiment of the inventionshowing aspects of the privacy preserving mechanisms, FIG. 13Arepresents the Demographic Public System and FIG. 13B represents theDemographic Private System;

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of the process to convert demographic datainto privacy preserving components;

FIGS. 13A and 13B depict a modified embodiment of FIG. 11 showingadditional detail with respect to the data elements used for privacypreserving purposes. FIG. 13A represents the Demographic Public Systemand FIG. 13B represents the Demographic Private System; and

FIG. 14 depicts an embodiment of a partial output of the LocationDemographic Profile for an illustrative geographic geometry.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

As used herein, the term “demographics” means statistical datadescribing a population. Demographics or demographic data includes, butis not limited to average age, income, education, ethnicity, gender,disabilities, mobility, educational attainment, home ownership,employment status, etc. It also may include psychographic data such asthe values, attitudes, moods and interests of a population. It also mayinclude activity, venue, and points of interest details that furtherdescribe a population or a location. The data may be time dependent withtrending attributes.

As used herein, the term “demographic attribute” indicates a specificmeasure of demographics, for example, gender. Each attribute may havemany “buckets” which represent the possible categories for a givenattribute. For example, the attribute gender could have two buckets,male and female. Each of these buckets could indicate the ratio orpercent of the population that fall within the definitions for eachbucket.

As used herein, the term “Location Demographic Profile” or “LDP” meansthe composite or aggregate statistics of a population based on aspecific location or geographical area.

As used herein, the term “Device Demographic Profile” or “DDP” means thecomposite or aggregate statistics of a Device and, by proxy the deviceowner or operator(s), based on a set of inputs including the aggregateset of LDPs in which the device has been observed.

As used herein, the terms “Canonical Week” and “Hour of the Week” referto the 168 hours of a week starting with hour 0 at Sunday 12 AM andcontinuing through Saturday 11 PM.

Mobile phones equipped with GPS and other location technologies providea new opportunity for discovering user information. Location traceinformation can be used to augment observations about what web pages auser visits or what mobile applications a user employs with respect totime and place. Behavioral and demographic attributes of a user can beinferred based on where he or she goes if a complete map trace isstored. Venues and Points of Interest (POIs) and their demographictendencies can also be used to contribute to understanding anindividual's proclivities. In addition, geotagged social activity (forexample, Twitter posts) can provide more social, demographic, activity,and behavior information about a place in time.

Individual profiling can be used to present relevant advertising andcontent, both physical and electronic, to individuals. Locationprofiling can be used to make intelligent decisions about physicalplaces by knowing what kind of people visit a place throughout the day,for example decisions about the best place for retail expansion oroutdoor advertising. Such profiling, however, can raise general privacyconcerns for the individual, since the location of the individual cantell a lot about the person.

Tracking of individuals, even without knowledge of their PersonallyIdentifiable Information (e.g. Name, Social Security Number, Address,etc.), presents potential risks to the privacy of individuals. Inparticular, location information about individuals in which timesequence is maintained and which has high enough spatial precision, canuniquely identify an individual. Linking these unique traces to aspecific named person is quite achievable in today's environment of “BigData”, data that is easily accessed and searched.

Individual location traces provide enough information to identify thehome and work place of individuals. It has been shown in Golle &Partridge, On the anonymity of home, work location pair (Golle, P.;Partridge, K. On the anonymity of home, work location pairs. Proceedingsof the 7th International Conference on Pervasive Computing; 2009 May11-14; Nara, Japan. Berlin: Springer; 2009; LNCS 5538: 390-397), thathaving this information, even at the spatial resolution of a CensusBlock, uniquely identifies individuals.

In order to preserve user privacy, a vendor may choose not to collectany location trace information or associate a unique identifier with anyindividual locations. However, this makes it very difficult to associateany kind of description or category with a device, since there is nohistory whatsoever stored about it.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose methods of and systems foraggregating location and demographic information of individual deviceusers and locations, thereby enabling the various use cases associatedwith this information, while also preserving the privacy of theindividual. Embodiments of the present invention provide a set ofmethods to preserve the privacy of individuals while computing a DeviceDemographic Profile based on the Location Demographic Profiles oflocations visited by that device. In particular the methods disclosedprovide techniques for computing the DDP without storing a locationtrace of an individual.

Further, dynamic LDPs can then be determined using a collection of DDPsthat visit a location at a particular time of day. These dynamic LDPscan be computed for various scales of time and space.

In broad terms, embodiments of the present invention include a methodand systems to build and maintain demographic estimates of mobile deviceowners while preserving the anonymity and privacy of the individual.This information is then used to establish dynamic or time-varyingdemographic information related to a location. Through the use of mobilecomputing devices in concert with location services, device and locationdemographic profiles can be computed in a time varying manner withoutcompromising individual privacy.

Embodiments of the invention determine a Device Demographic Profilebased on where that device goes—the interaction with LocationDemographic Profiles and potentially other DDPs the device comes nearphysically—without storing locations, or any trace that would allowdiscovery of where the device actually went before or after the fact.The only thing stored is the set of demographic attributes for thedevice (the DDP) and for the location (LDP). No latitude or longitude ordescription of a location that could uniquely identify a particularpoint on a map is stored in concert with a unique ID.

In the first embodiment, the DDP is determined based on the location adevice visits at certain times of day. For example, when a phone is usedto query location in the evening or at night, for the purpose of lookingat a map, or posting a message to a social network, or any otherpurpose, a simple technique could assume that this is the homedemographic of the user, for example. (More sophisticated technique canbe created which use statistical measures of time and space to determinedemographic clusters and reason as to which of these clusters representthe home demographic profile.) The base Location Demographic Profile forthis “home zone” or a set of LDPs chosen for other significance can thenbe combined to create a DDP. Other LDPs the device encounters can beused to adjust the DDP over time. Embodiments of the present inventiondetermine a DDP without a stored location history thus preserving useranonymity.

The present illustrative embodiment uses at least three inputs plus anoptional additional input. These include the current location as alatitude and longitude point with error probability. The secondnecessary input includes the available LDPs for the currently orrecently visited locations (which may be based on data from the U.S.Census, for example). Third, the current local time, where local isdefined relative to the current location. Lastly, the existing DDP aspreviously computed is an optional input.

LDPs are initially populated with currently available, static ornon-moving place-based demographic data, for example demographic dataavailable from the U.S. Census, but also from other data sources. Theymay also be extrapolated from neighboring LDPs if not enough data isavailable for a particular location from other sources. An extrapolationbetween two areas can be performed in much the same way that a linearinterpolation can be performed between two points on a line, taking intoaccount the 2-dimensional nature of the area. The present embodimentadjusts LDPs over time based on the DDPs that visit that location. Afeedback mechanism is established that adjusts DDPs and LDPs over time,improving their quality. Individual LDPs are stored for each time of dayat a particular place. Additional distinct DDPs can be created andstored which represent various classes or periods of time. This couldinclude such classifications as weekends, morning, lunchtime, afternoon,happy hour, evening, witching hour, etc., and can be defined by anyarbitrary block or blocks of time.

The methods that contribute to the privacy preserving nature of thepresent invention include A) reducing the specificity of information, B)converting from spatial dimensions to demographic dimensions, C)separating operational domains, D) implementing cryptographic isolationbetween operational domains, and E) applying probabilistic techniques tofurther isolate information. These methods contribute to the privacypreserving nature while maintaining the ability to compute DDPs and LDPswhile providing the facility to continually add new sources of basedemographic or ‘location’ information.

In one embodiment, the specificity of certain information is reduced.This information includes exchanging the hour of the week in place ofthe specific local time. This reduces the ability to time sequence a setof observations. This substitution is carried out throughout theentirety of the process.

In certain embodiments the conversion from spatial dimensions (e.g.latitude and longitude) to demographic dimensions (e.g. age, gender,etc.) occurs at the initial observation. Converting the informationearly in the process allows the location to never be stored. In otherembodiments, the conversion occurs at a later time and before storage ofthe information.

In one embodiment, the system is comprised of at least two operationaldomains. The separation of the operational control provides the abilityto reduce information knowledge within each domain. Thus, informationthat, for example, could link a device with a hashed Device ID is onlyknown in one domain, while information that could link a hashed DeviceID to a demographic Profile is only known in the other domain.

Additionally, the separation of operational domains allows the use ofcryptographic techniques to secure private information within one domainfrom being shared with the other domain. In one embodiment this can beused to create opaque strings which contain very little information forany entity not in possession of the key.

The use of probabilistic techniques provides another method to increasethe privacy of individuals. In one embodiment, probabilistic techniquesallow the identification of uniqueness without the ability to determinewhich of the total set is observed. This technique can be applied, forexample, in counting unique devices that appear within a specificspatial area in a specific amount of time without compromising theprivacy of an individual.

Referring now to embodiments of the invention in more detail, FIG. 1provides an illustrative example of a dynamic demographic informationflow 100. It depicts the overall flow of processing and data flow for anembodiment. A software application (generally running on a mobilecomputing device) requests the location of the device 101. This requesttriggers the retrieval of the current Device Demographic Profile (DDP)103. It then computes the location of the device through any of a numberof means (e.g. GPS or Wi-Fi positioning) 102. This information includingthe timestamp, latitude, longitude and DDP, is logged to the DeviceDemographic Profile Logs 111 (step 104). In order to ensure privacy ofthe device and subsequently to the end user of the device, no deviceidentifying information is stored in 111.

Continuing in FIG. 1, the current Location Demographic Profile (LDP) isretrieved 105 from the Location Demographic Profiles database 112. Thisinformation is then logged in the Location Demographic Profile Log 113(step 106). Information stored in this database includes the timestampof the request, the location latitude and longitude as well as thecurrent LDP for that location. The location and optionally the LDP andDDP are returned to the calling application by 107.

Also depicted in FIG. 1 are two processes which do not have to executein-line or synchronously with the control flows within FIG. 1. Theseinclude the computation of the new Device Demographic Profiles 109 andthe computation of the new Location Demographic Profiles 108. These willbe described further in subsequent figures.

In addition, the above steps can be initiated by an express request fordemographic information determination by an application (step 120).

Continuing to describe embodiments of the invention in more detail, inFIG. 2 is one embodiment 200 of the invention in which there is a MobileComputing Device 201, which contains Applications 202. Many applicationson mobile devices require location information to be useful or toenhance the functionality of the application. Mobile devices provide aLocation API 203, which allows applications to retrieve an estimate ofthe current location of the device, which, in some embodiments uses aClient Location Service 204 on the device. Embodiments of the presentinvention extend the capability of a mobile device by adding LocationDemographic Profile Logging 205, Device Demographics Profile Retrieval206 and Device Demographics Profile Engine 207. Additional functionalityare included on a server are grouped within the Demographic Server 220.Components of 220 include the Device Demographics Profile Logging 221,the Location Demographic Profile Retrieval 222 and the LocationDemographics Profile Engine 223. The new components will be described inmore detail in subsequent figures. Additionally, the invention, in oneembodiment, extends existing Location Servers 210 by augmenting theServer Location Service 211 to make a call to the Demographic Server220.

FIG. 3 is one embodiment of the Device Demographic Profile Retrieval206. This figure depicts the process by which a Device DemographicProfile (DDP) is retrieved from the Device Demographic Profiles database304. This process is activated, e.g., when a location request is made byan application (step 101 of FIG. 1). Referring to FIG. 3, the request301 is received and a query is performed to determine if a qualified DDPis available 302. The qualification criteria are dependent on severalfactors including the number of samples that have been collected, thecluster of these samples over time and similar Location DemographicProfiles, and the stability of the sample set with respect to changeover time. For example, if a particular sample set shows a rate ofchange greater than a particular threshold or measure, it can be deemedto be too dynamic to be relied upon. If a qualified DDP is available, itis returned (steps 303 and 306). In the event that a qualified DDP isnot available, a null DDP will be returned 305.

Continuing with FIG. 4, an embodiment of the process by whichinformation is gathered about the demographics of devices (and by proxythe end user of such devices) that visit different locations isdescribed. In particular, each time a location request is made from adevice with a qualified DDP, the DDP along with a timestamp or timesubstitute (such as the hour of the week) and the geographical locationor a location substitute (such as a geographic geometry) of the deviceis captured in the Device Demographic Profile Logs 111 by the DeviceDemographics Profile Logging 221 process. To preserve device anonymity,no device or personal identifying information is logged thus eliminatingthe ability to track or even identify which device made any particularrequest.

FIG. 5 describes the process 222 of retrieving a specific LocationDemographic Profile (LDP). This information is retrieved in order forthe techniques to build a history of demographic information about wherethe device has been observed. A request to retrieve an LDP is received501. A query is performed 502 to determine if an appropriate LDP isavailable for the location of the mobile computing device. The LDP mayrepresent a generalized perspective of the demographic makeup of thelocation or, for example, it may be specific to the hour of the day andthe day of the week. If an appropriate LDP is available, it is returned504, if an appropriate LDP is not present (for example if no deviceswith known LDPs have visited the location), one may be extrapolated fromneighboring LDPs, or a null LDP may be returned by 503.

FIG. 6 represents a process performed according to embodiments of thepresent invention. The Location Demographic Profile Engine 223 processflow is depicted and describes a method by which various data sourcescan be combined to create a set of Location Demographic Profiles (LDPs).Each location can have multiple LDPs based on, for example, each hour inthe canonical week, the time of day, the day of week, the day of theyear, or the season of the year. These demographics are compiled andcomputed for each location by the depicted process.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 6, a process to determine the LDPs of one ormore locations is initiated. This initiation can happen in real-timebased on some event or it can occur in an off-line mode, asynchronous tothe operation of the general flow of the mobile device location anddemographic requests. For each location that requires a newdetermination, the location geometry is retrieved from the LocationGeometry database 610 (step 601). The location geometry allows theprocess to retrieve all relevant information related to that location(where location geometry is simply a portioning of areas in the overallspace). This information can include many different and varied data fromdisparate sources such as Demographic Profile Logs 111 from the presentembodiment, Static Demographic Statistics 605 which may come fromsources such as the US Census, Other Psychographic Statistics 606 suchas interests, activities and opinions of the population that frequentsthe location, Land Use Data 607 which can help identify the types ofactivity present at the location as well as the expected influx/effluxof people to the location, Venue and Check-in data 608 which can provideinsight into both the type and frequency of activities in the location,Social Media, News, Crime statistics, etc. 609. These alternate sourcescan provide meaningful measures of activity, inclinations, safety andmany other elements that may influence the LDP of the location.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 6, once the various records related to thelocation L are gathered (step 602), this information is then processedto compute the new LDPs for the location 108. One embodiment of thetechnique combines this information using the following technique.

First, given sufficient Device Demographic Profile samples within thelocation, for each hour of each day of the week (e.g. Monday at 8 AM),compute the Mobile Demographic Profile for location L by averaging theDDPs within each of the 168 weekly hours.

Next, determine other hourly statistics (e.g. for social media, thesevalues may change over time and will need to be recomputed).

Next, combine the Mobile Demographic Profile information with the hourlystatistics which represent the dynamic demographics.

Next, summarize all other static attributes (e.g. Census Data) as thestatic demographics.

Next, determine R, the mobile to static ratio for the location L. Forexample, this can be determined by combining Venue (608), Land Use(607), and Demographic (605) data to estimate the ratio of residents tovisitors at the location at the a given time.

Next, use the ratio R to determine the influence of the dynamicdemographics D on the static demographics S. For the set of attribute Athat are mutual in these sets, A=(R*S+1/R*D). For those attributes thatare exclusive to any of sets, use the values of these attributes as thefinal values for the LDPs of the location L.

To complete the discussion of FIG. 6, once the new LDPs have beencomputed for the location L, they are used to update the LocationDemographic Profiles database 112 (step 603).

The process is repeated while there are additional locations L that needto be computed (step 604).

FIG. 7 depicts a process by which the Device Demographic Profiles (DDPs)are computed by the Device Demographic Profile Engine 207. In oneembodiment of this invention, the computation of the DDPs is executed onthe Mobile Computing Device 201. In FIG. 7, an event such as a new LDPor an external trigger begins the process of computing a new DDP for thedevice. The process begins by gathering all relevant LDPs that have beenlogged for the device 701. These may be filtered by different criteria,such as age of reading, day of the week, etc. The logs for the deviceare then combined using a technique to compute the new DDP 109. Oneembodiment of the technique chooses all LDPs for the device that wereregistered between the hours of 10 PM and 5 AM local time for thatdevice. A rudimentary implementation could then average the demographicinformation contained in all of the LDPs to compute an average DDP. Thiswould presume that the device was near the home location of the owner amajority of the time that it was observed during this time and thuswould be strongly influenced by the demographics of that location.

Another embodiment of the technique would cluster similar demographicsbased on similarity measures and grouped by time. Thus, large clusterscould be identified that represent a demographic profile of locations inwhich the device is often observed. These different clusters could thenbe categorized based on various factors (e.g. time of day, land use,etc.) to label these DDPs with tags such as ‘home’ or ‘work’.

The clustering techniques are novel in that they cluster demographicswithin the demographic dimension and time dimension. This differs frommethods which relied on the spatial attributes (e.g. location) toprovide clustering and distance measures. Computations must include amechanism to determine ‘Demographic Distance’ between any twoDemographic Profiles. For example, the distance measure could be thenormalized sum of differences in ratios across all buckets in all of theattribute classes. A more sophisticated embodiment computes weighteddifference based on the number of buckets contained in each attributeclass.

Completing the discussion of FIG. 7, once the new DDPs have beencomputed by 109, this information is stored in the Device DemographicProfiles database 110 (step 702).

FIG. 8, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 depict an alternate embodiment of theinvention in which the Device Demographic Profiles (DDPs) are computedand stored on the Location Server 210 rather than the Mobile ComputingDevice 201. In these instances FIG. 8 is a modified version of FIG. 2,FIG. 9, 900 is a modified version of FIG. 3, and FIG. 10 is a modifiedversion of FIG. 7. One key distinction between these sets of figures isthe inclusion of a hashed ID in the process and data flows that identifya device as distinct from all other devices.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which there is aMobile Computing Device 201 which contains Applications 202. Manyapplications on mobile devices require location information to be usefulor to enhance the functionality of the application. Mobile devicesprovide a Location API 203 which allows applications to retrieve anestimate of the current location of the device. Additionally theinvention, in one embodiment, extends Demographic Server 220 by addingthe Location Demographics Profile Logging 205, the Device DemographicsProfile Retrieval 806 and Device Demographics Profile Engine 807.

Continuing with FIG. 9, the modified Device Demographic ProfileRetrieval 806 is described in an embodiment deployed on the DemographicServer 220. In addition to the request for a DDP, the calling processmust include a hashed ID to identify the particular Device that a DDP isbeing requested for 901. This same information is subsequently requiredto retrieve the DDP 903. All other steps remain analogous as thosedescribed for Device Demographic Profile Retrieval 206.

Continuing with FIG. 10, 1000 depicts the Device Demographic ProfileEngine 807 is depicted in a second embodiment whereby the process islocated on the Demographic Server 220 rather than the Mobile ComputingDevice 201. Similar to FIG. 9, the processing required to compute a DDPon the server is a hashed ID which identifies the particular device forwhich to compute the DDP. This hashed ID will also be used to retrievethe logged LDPs for that device 1001 as well as to update the DDP 1002upon completion of the computation as performed by step 109 previouslydescribed.

FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B combine to depict an illustrative embodiment ofthe invention highlighting aspects of the privacy preserving mechanisms.This simplified model shows the data and control flow of one embodimentof the system, highlighting those components which contribute to theprivacy preserving capabilities. FIG. 11A represents activity occurringon the Demographic Public System 1150A. FIG. 11B represents activityoccurring on the Demographic Private System 1160B. In one embodiment,all actions and data occur on systems independent of Mobile Device1101A. In particular, the Mobile Device 1101A requests either a Locationor Device Demographic Profile or a combination of both from a Locationand Demographic Service. The Mobile Device 1101A passes either thelocation of the device or enough information for the service to computeits location in conjunction with a DeviceID that uniquely identifies thedevice.

The Demographic Service receives the request and routes it to theDemographic Public System 1150A which determines if location informationis present 1102A. If location information is present, the request isrouted to the Demographic Service 1104A, otherwise the request is routedto the Location Service 1103A. If the location is not present, theLocation Service 1103A will attempt to compute the location of thedevice. If it cannot determine the location of the device, an empty (orequivalent) response is returned to the Mobile Device 1101A. Otherwise,the request is forwarded to the Demographic Service 1104A along with thenewly computed location. Henceforth, all activities continue as if therequest had come from the Mobile Device 1101A with location included.

Continuing with FIG. 11A, the information is passed to three independentprocesses: the Device Demographic Logger 1105A, the Location DemographicCounter 1114A, and the Location Demographic Logger 1118A.

The Device Demographic Logger 1105A provides a number of privacypreserving actions. It converts the DeviceID into a DeviceToken. It alsoconverts the time of request to the local time based on the location ofthe device. This local time, in certain embodiments, may then be furtherreduced in specificity, for example by reducing it to indicate only hourof the week information. Other options include a representation of timelacking date information (such as month, day, and/or year) and/or a timerange. The Device Demographic Logger 1105A then retrieves thedemographic keys for the given location from the Location DemographicKeys 1106A. These keys, the converted request time, and the DeviceTokenare then passed over an Administrative Boundary 1127 to the DeviceDemographic Loader 1107B in FIG. 11B.

The Administrative Boundary 1127 provides additional privacy preservingcapabilities. It represents the separation of knowledge such thatinformation available on the Demographic Public System 1150A is notdiscoverable on the Demographic Private System 1160B. Only theinformation that is explicitly shared from one side of the boundary tothe other is available. For example, the relationship between theDeviceID and the DeviceToken is not discoverable on the DemographicPrivate System 1160B in FIG. 11B.

Continuing with FIG. 11B, the Device Demographic Loader 1107B generateslog records from the input DeviceToken, request time, and DemographicKeys. The output from this process is the Device Demographic ProfileLogs 1108B.

The Device Demographic Processor 1110B reads records from the DeviceDemographic Profile Logs 1108B as well as specific values from theLocation Demographic Attributes 1109B based on the Demographic Keyspreviously logged. The information in the Location DemographicsAttributes 1109B represent the values for the demographic attributes,for example, the ratio of people in the given area which are femalesbased on previously known information. All Device Demographic ProfileLogs records are gathered for each DeviceToken. Using this set ofinformation, the Device Demographic Processor 1110B will perform variousclustering algorithms to compute the most likely set of demographicsthat represent the Mobile Device for the specified criteria. For exampleif the ‘Home’ demographic for the device is requested, the clusteralgorithm may choose all demographic log records that occurred between10 PM and 5 AM to represent the most likely times that a device would belocated within the home demographics of the device owner.

Clustering is a common data mining method by which groups of ‘like’items are assigned to a set by computing a difference, or ‘distance’between items. Cluster analysis can be accomplished with a number ofdifferent algorithms based on the specific need. In particular, acluster of similar demographic records can be found by measuring thedifference between two demographic records. Records with similar valuescan be clustered together. An example would be to measure the differencebetween all attribute's buckets. If the average value between buckets isless than 0.1, these records would be considered as part of the cluster.

Upon successful clustering by the Device Demographic Processor 1110B, aset of records that represent the computed demographics for the devicewill be written to the Device Demographic Profiles 1111B database and arelationship between the DeviceToken and the DemographicProfileTokenwill be stored in the DemographicTokens 1126B database.

Continuing in FIG. 11B, a copy of the Demographic Tokens 1126B databaseis transferred to the Demographic Public System 1150 in FIG. 11A (at1126A). The Device Demographic Profiles 1111B are optionally copied tothe Demographic Public System 1150A (at 1111A) for use in computing apublic version the Device Demographic Summary.

Returning to FIG. 11A, a request by the Mobile Device 1101 will alsoinstigate a process within the Location Demographic Counter 1114A. Thisprocess counts the presence of unique devices within a given geographicboundary during a specific time window. For example, it may count thenumber of devices that appeared in a city block on Monday between 3 PMand 4 PM. Utilizing, for example, a Probabilistic Counter 1115A such asa Bloom Filter, the unique number of devices can be counted withoutidentifying the specific Devices that were counted, thus preserving theprivacy of the individual devices that are found to be present atvarious locations. These counts are then passed to the Device CountLoader 1116B located within the administrative domain of the DemographicPrivate System 1160B shown in FIG. 11B.

The Device Count Loader 1116B generates records that are stored in theDevice Count Logs 1117B database in FIG. 11B.

Returning to FIG. 11A, a request by the Mobile Device 1101 will alsoinstigate a process within the Location Demographic Logger 1118A. Thisprocess will convert the DeviceID to a DeviceToken. It will then usethis information to find a matching record, if available, within theDemographicTokens database. If present, the record will contain theDemographicToken for the given DeviceToken. The specific location isconverted to a geometric shape representing some area larger than theidentified point. This process reduces the specificity of the location,providing additional privacy preserving properties. Additionally, thespecific time of the request is reduced in a manner similar to thatdescribed within the Device Demographic Logger 1105A process to provideadditional privacy preserving qualities. The DemographicToken, thelocation geometry, and the modified time value are then sent to theLocation Demographic Loader 1119B within the Demographic Private System1160B shown in FIG. 11B.

Continuing in FIG. 11B, the Location Demographic Loader 1119B generatesrecords which are stored in the Location Demographic Logs 1120Bdatabase.

The Location Demographic Processor 1121B periodically computes theLocation Demographic Profiles for each location geometry for which theLocation Demographic Logs 1120B database contains information. For eachlocation geometry, the process retrieves records for a specific timeframe (e.g. each hour). These records are combined with the DeviceDemographic Profiles 1111B database to compute the aggregate LocationDemographic Profile for that location during that time duration.

For each Location Demographic Logs 1120B record, the associated DeviceDemographic Profiles 1111B record is retrieved based on the DemographicToken. To combine the demographic information, a number of techniquescan be applied. For example, the median of the demographics for eachattribute can be chosen. Using median removes outliers and considers thebest representative of temporal/spatial demographics. The median can bemodified to select a bin with the most number of like records, if theyexist. In this case, the most frequently occurring values could bechosen as the result for each attribute and bucket.

An alternative method would be to use the average of demographics, whichis calculated by averaging each bucket of each attribute. Otherstatistical means to compute the combined demographics could be applied(e.g. weighted average based on number of like samples).

The Device Count Logs 1117B are consulted to assist in computing theconfidence in the profile based on the number of devices observed withinthe given location geometry during the time in question. The confidencecan be computed based on the total number of samples observed for thatlocation within the time window. This number can be compared tohistorical sample counts to determine if the sample count isstatistically significant. Alternatively, the expected population of thearea can be used to compare the sample count to determine thestatistical significance of the samples. In one embodiment, thestatistical significance would be used as the confidence factor. Otherfactors, such as the accuracy of the location, or externally availableinformation about the number of mobile device users in the area could beused to compute the confidence factors.

This process is repeated for each demographic attribute and for eachdesired time span. This results in record for each computation thatincludes the location geometry, the time span, the confidence factor(s)and values for each computed bucket within the given attribute (e.g. thecomputed ratio of males and females). These records are then written tothe Location Demographic 1112B database.

The Location Demographic database 1112B is copied to the DemographicPublic System 1150A depicted in FIG. 11A.

Returning to FIG. 11A, if the Mobile Device 1101A has requested aLocation Demographic Profile, the Location Demographic Summary 1123Aprocess is executed for the location that is requested. This processcombines information from the Demographic Bucket Reference 1125Adatabase, the Demographic Attribute Reference 1124A database, and theLocation Demographics 1112A database to generate a record indicating thecomputed demographics for a given geographic geometry for the desiredtime window. The reference tables allow the generic informationcontained in the Location Demographics 1112A database to be convertedback into semantically meaningful demographic attribute and bucket names(e.g. convert from “Table A” to “Education”, and “Bucket1” to“Bachelors”). This record is then returned to the Mobile Device 1101A.

Optionally, the Mobile Device 1101A may request its own DeviceDemographic Summary. If requested, the Device Demographic Summary 1113Aprocess will be executed. This process will convert the DeviceID to aDeviceToken. Using this information, it will retrieve the DeviceDemographic Profiles 111IA for this device. It will use this informationas well as information obtained from the Demographic Tokens 1126Adatabase, the Demographic Bucket Reference 1125A database and theDemographic Attribute Reference 1124A database to generate a record thatsummarizes the computed demographics for the given device. This recordis then returned to the Mobile Device 1101A. Note that providing thisoptional service reduces the privacy preserving nature of the system. Inorder to produce the Device Demographic Summary, the Demographic PublicSystem 1150A must have access to the Device Demographic Profiles 1111Adatabase, thus providing a potential for the exposure of this privateinformation.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of the process 1200 to convert demographicdata into privacy preserving subsets. This process occurs prior to thesystem being deployed to the Operational Data 1230, and can be processedonce for each demographic attribute that should be included in thedemographic computations. FIG. 12 shows a specific demographicattribute, the Education Demographics 1215, being converted from theOriginal Data 1210 into its constituent parts in the LocationDemographic Attributes 1240 database and the Location DemographicBuckets 1250 databases.

Continuing with FIG. 12, the Demographic Encoder 1220 reads theEducation Demographics 1215 database. For each record, it generates areference ID, called the Recno. This Recno will serve as the linkbetween the GI Demographics 1241 database and the A1 Demographicsdatabase 1252. The Demographic Encoder 1220 then stores the Locationfrom the Education Demographics 1215 record along with the generatedRecno in the GI Demographics database. It also stores the generatedRecno along with the values from the columns in the EducationDemographics 1215 database into their respective columns in the A1Demographics 1252 database. For example, the values in the High Schoolcolumn from the Education Demographics 1215 database will be stored inthe Bucket 1 column of the A1 Demographics 1252 database for theirrespective rows. The extent of the Locations in the EducationDemographics 1215 database can be any size and shape that provides ameaningful designation of likely common demographics shared by thosewithin the extent. For example, the Locations can be a neighborhood, acity block, a venue, a small town, or anything on the order thereof.

In addition to splitting the data values between two distinct tables,the relationship between these tables and new column names must bemaintained in order to reverse the mapping when processed data is to bereturned to the Mobile Device. To encode this mapping, two additionaldatabases are required. The Demographic Attribute Reference 1243database encodes the mapping from the new table name (e.g. “Al”) to theoriginal data table name (e.g. “Education”). The second database,Demographic Bucket Reference 1242, provides the mapping for each bucketor column within an attribute. For example, this allows the system toconvert from “Bucket 1” to the semantically meaningful value of “HighSchool”.

Continuing with FIG. 12, note that the division of the data is alsomaintained across the Administrative Boundary 1127. The GI Demographics1241 database is contained within the Demographic Public System 1150while the A1 Demographics 1252 is contained on the Demographic PrivateSystem 1160. This division is an example that provides additionalprivacy preserving properties both by obfuscating the information (e.g.converting recognizable information such as “High School” to genericlabels such as “Bucket 1”) as well as separation of knowledge (e.g. therelationship of Recno to Area is only known by the Demographic PublicSystem 1150, while the relationship of Recno to attribute buckets isonly known by the Demographic Private System 1160.

FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B show an instance of FIG. 11A and FIG. 11Bcontaining additional detail with respect to the data elements used forprivacy preserving purposes. In particular, FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B depictan embodiment of the system in which the abstract database icons andnames from FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B have been replaced with specificinstances of tables and data to provide more concrete examples of theprivacy preserving features. In particular, it depicts a singledemographic attribute, “Education” and the attribute buckets of “HighSchool”, “Bachelors”, and “PhD”.

In FIG. 13A, the Mobile Device 1301A requests either a Location orDevice Demographic Profile or a combination of both from a Location andDemographic Service 1300A. The Mobile Device 1301A passes either thelocation of the device or enough information for the service to computeits location in conjunction with a DeviceID.

The Demographic Service 1300A receives the request and routes it to theDemographic Public System 1350A which determines if location informationis present via 1302A. If location information is present, the request isrouted to the Demographic Service 1304A, otherwise the request is routedto the Location Service 1303A. If the location is not present, theLocation Service 1303A will attempt to compute the location of thedevice. If it cannot determine the location of the device, an empty (orequivalent) response is returned to the Mobile Device 1301A. Otherwise,the request is forwarded to the Demographic Service 1304A along with thenewly computed location. Henceforth, all activities continue as if therequest had come from the Mobile Device 1301A with location included.

Continuing with FIG. 13A, the information is passed to three independentprocesses: the Device Demographic Logger 1305A, the Location DemographicCounter 1314A, and the Location Demographic Logger 1318A.

The Device Demographic Logger 1305A provides a number of privacypreserving actions. It converts the DeviceID into a DeviceToken. It alsoconverts the time of request to the local time based on the location ofthe device. This local time, in certain embodiments, may then be furtherreduced in specificity, for example by reducing it to indicate only hourof the week information. The Device Demographic Logger 1305A thenretrieves the demographic keys for the given location from the G1Demographics 1306A database. For example, assume the request wasreceived by a location within “Areal”, the resulting key (e.g. Recno)would be “8230”. This Recno, the converted request time, and theDeviceToken are then passed over an Administrative Boundary 1327A to theDevice Demographic Loader 1307B shown in FIG. 13B.

The Administrative Boundary 1327A provides additional privacy preservingcapabilities. It represents the separation of knowledge such thatinformation available on the Demographic Public System 1350A is notdiscoverable on the Demographic Private System 1360B in FIG. 13B. Onlythe information that is explicitly shared from one side of the boundaryto the other is available. For example, the relationship between theDeviceID and the DeviceToken is not discoverable on the DemographicPrivate System 1360B.

Referring to FIG. 13B, the Device Demographic Loader 1307B generates logrecords from the input DeviceToken, request time, and Demographic Keys.The output from this process is the A1 Device Logs 1308B. Each recordcontains the DeviceToken, the HourOfWeek, and the Recno as sent by theDevice Demographic Logger 1305A from FIG. 13A.

Continuing with FIG. 13B, the Device Demographic Processor 1310B readsrecords from the A1 Device Logs 1308B as well as specific values fromthe A1 Demographics 1309B based on the Demographic Keys previouslylogged. The information in the A1 Demographics 1309B represent thevalues for the buckets within the “A1” demographic attribute. All DeviceDemographic Profile Logs records are gathered for each DeviceToken.Using this set of information, the Device Demographic Processor 1310Bwill perform various clustering algorithms to compute the most likelyset of demographics that represent the Mobile Device for the specifiedcriteria. For example if the ‘Home’ demographic for the device isrequested, the cluster algorithm may choose all demographic log recordsthat occurred between 10 PM and 5 AM to represent the most likely timesthat a device would be located within the home demographics of thedevice owner.

Upon successful clustering by the Device Demographic Processor 1310B, aset of records that represent the computed demographics for the devicewill be written to the Device Demographic Profiles 1311B database and arelationship between the DeviceToken and the DemographicProfileTokenwill be stored in the Demographic Token 1326B database. Examples of thisoutput are depicted in the respective databases in FIG. 13B. Inparticular, it is noted that DeviceToken “ax8778as02” is connected tothe Recno “8230” via this relationship as indicated in FIG. 13B.

Continuing in FIG. 13B, a copy of the Demographic Token 1326B databaseis transferred to the Demographic Public System 1350A depicted on FIG.13A (as 1326A). The Device Demographic Profiles 1311B database isoptionally copied to the Demographic Public System 1350A, shown in FIG.13A, for use in computing a public version the Device DemographicSummary (as 1311A).

Returning to FIG. 13A, a request by the Mobile Device 1301A will alsoinstigate a process within the Location Demographic Counter 1314A. Thisprocess counts the presence of unique devices within a given geographicboundary during a specific time window. For example, it may count thenumber of devices that appeared in a city block on Monday between 3 PMand 4 PM. Utilizing, for example, a Probabilistic Counter 1315A such asa Bloom Filter, the unique number of devices can be counted withoutidentifying the specific Devices that were counted, thus preserving theprivacy of the individual devices that are found to be present atvarious locations. These counts are then passed to the Device CountLoader 1316B located within the administrative domain of the DemographicPrivate System 1360B depicted in FIG. 13B.

Continuing with FIG. 13B, the Device Count Loader 1316B generatesrecords that are stored in the Device Count Logs 1317B database. Forexample, referring to FIG. 13B that for Geometry “ABAF007” and hour 57of the week, there were 8 distinct devices counted.

Returning to FIG. 13A, a request by the Mobile Device 1301A will alsoinstigate a process within the Location Demographic Logger 1318A. Thisprocess will convert the DeviceID to a DeviceToken. It will then usethis information to find a matching record, if available, within theDemographicTokens database 1326A. If present, the record will containthe DemographicToken for the given DeviceToken. The specific location isconverted to a geometric shape representing some area larger than theidentified point. This process reduces the specificity of the location,providing additional privacy preserving properties. Additionally, thespecific time of the request is reduced in a manner similar to thatdescribed within the Device Demographic Logger 1305A process to provideadditional privacy preserving qualities. The Demographic Token, thelocation geometry, and the modified time value are then sent to theLocation Demographic Loader 1319B within the Demographic Private System1360B shown in FIG. 13B.

Continuing in FIG. 13B, the Location Demographic Loader 1319B generatesrecords which are stored in the Location Demographic Logs 1320Bdatabase.

The Location Demographic Processor 1321B periodically computes theLocation Demographic Profiles for each location geometry for which theLocation Demographic Logs 1320B database contains information. For eachlocation geometry, the process retrieves records for a specific timeframe (e.g. each hour). These records are combined with the DeviceDemographic Profiles 1311B database to compute the aggregate LocationDemographic Profile for that location during that time duration. TheDevice Count Logs 1317B are consulted to assist in computing theconfidence in the profile based on the number of devices observed withinthe given location geometry during the time in question. This process isrepeated for each demographic attribute and for each desired time span.This results in a record for each computation that includes the locationgeometry, the time span, the confidence factor(s) and values for eachcomputed bucket within the given attribute. These records are thenwritten to the A1 Location Demographics 1312B database. Referring toFIG. 13B, there is a single entry in A1 Location Demographics 1312Bdatabase representing the computed values for demographic attribute “A1”at location geometry “ABAF007” for the 57th hour of the week.

The A1 Location Demographics database 1312B is copied to the DemographicPublic System 1350B (as 1312A) shown in FIG. 13A.

Returning to FIG. 13A, if the Mobile Device 1301A has requested aLocation Demographic Profile, the Location Demographic Summary 1323Aprocess is executed for the location that was requested. This processcombines information from the Demographic Bucket Reference 1325Adatabase, the Demographic Attribute Reference 1324A database, and theLocation Demographics 1312A database to generate a record indicating thecomputed demographics for a given geographic geometry for the desiredtime window. The reference tables allow the generic informationcontained in the A1 Location Demographics 1312A database to be convertedback into semantically meaningful demographic attribute and bucketnames. This record is then returned to the Mobile Device 1301A.

FIG. 14 depicts an example output 1400 based for a Location DemographicProfile produced by the system shown in FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B. Thisrepresents a partial demographic profile 1401 based on the limitedexample data contained in the figure.

Optionally, the Mobile Device 1301A may request its own DeviceDemographic Summary. If requested, the Device Demographic Summary 1313Aprocess will be executed. This process will convert the DeviceID to aDeviceToken. Using this information, it will retrieve the DeviceDemographic Profiles 1312A for this device. It will use this informationas well as information obtained from the Demographic Token 1326Adatabase, the Demographic Bucket Reference 1325A database and theDemographic Attribute Reference 1324A database to generate a record thatsummarizes the computed demographics for the given device. This recordis then returned to the Mobile Device 1301A. Note that providing thisoptional service reduces the privacy preserving nature of the system. Inorder to produce the Device Demographic Summary, the Demographic PublicSystem 1350A must have access to the Device Demographic Profiles 1311Adatabase, thus providing a potential for the exposure of this privateinformation.

In the foregoing description, certain steps or processes were describedas being performed on particular servers or as part of a particularengine. These descriptions are merely illustrative, as the specificsteps can be performed on various hardware devices, including, but notlimited to, server systems and/or mobile devices. Similarly, thedivision of where the particular steps are performed in the abovedescription illustrates certain embodiments, if being understood that nodivision or a different division is within the scope of the invention.

The techniques and systems disclosed herein may be implemented as acomputer program product for use with a computer system or computerizedelectronic device. Such implementations may include a series of computerinstructions, or logic, fixed either on a tangible medium, such as acomputer readable medium (e.g., a diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, flash memory orother memory or fixed disk) or transmittable to a computer system or adevice, via a modem or other interface device, such as a communicationsadapter connected to a network over a medium.

The medium may be either a tangible medium (e.g., optical or analogcommunications lines) or a medium implemented with wireless techniques(e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular, microwave, infrared or other transmissiontechniques). The series of computer instructions embodies at least partof the functionality described herein with respect to the system. Thoseskilled in the art should appreciate that such computer instructions canbe written in a number of programming languages for use with manycomputer architectures or operating systems.

Furthermore, such instructions may be stored in any tangible memorydevice, such as semiconductor, magnetic, optical or other memorydevices, and may be transmitted using any communications technology,such as optical, infrared, microwave, or other transmissiontechnologies.

It is expected that such a computer program product may be distributedas a removable medium with accompanying printed or electronicdocumentation (e.g., shrink wrapped software), preloaded with a computersystem (e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk), or distributed from a serveror electronic bulletin board over the network (e.g., the Internet orWorld Wide Web). Of course, some embodiments of the invention may beimplemented as a combination of both software (e.g., a computer programproduct) and hardware. Still other embodiments of the invention areimplemented as entirely hardware, or entirely software (e.g., a computerprogram product).

Moreover, the techniques and systems disclosed herein can be used with avariety of mobile devices. For example, mobile telephones, smart phones,personal digital assistants, satellite positioning units (e.g., GPSdevices), and/or mobile computing devices capable of receiving thesignals discussed herein can be used in implementations of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for estimating demographic information,comprising: retrieving a device demographic profile for a mobile device;determining an estimated geographic location of the mobile device by alocation service executing on an electronic device, the location serviceusing at least one of a global positioning system (GPS) or a Wi-Fipositioning system to determine the estimated geographic location;determining a time at which the mobile device visited the estimatedgeographic location; assigning a substitute identifier for location tothe estimated geographic location of the mobile device; retrieving alocation demographic profile for a geographic area based on thesubstitute identifier for location and for a time frame that includesthe determined time; updating, by a demographic service executing on theelectronic device or another electronic device, the device demographicprofile for the mobile device based on the location demographic profile;updating the location demographic profile based on a plurality of devicedemographic profiles of a plurality of mobile devices that visitgeographic locations within the geographic area, the plurality of mobiledevices including the mobile device; repeating at least the updating thedevice demographic profile and the updating the location demographicprofile in a feedback mechanism that improves quality of the locationdemographic profile and the location demographic profile; and using atleast one of the updated location demographic profile or the updateddevice demographic profile to provide a service to at least one mobiledevice.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the substitute identifier forlocation identifies geographic location with less specificity than theestimated geographic location.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thesubstitute identifier for location identifies a geometric shape thatincludes the estimated geographic location of the mobile device.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: assigning a substitute identifierfor time to the determined time, and wherein the retrieving the locationdemographic profile is based on the substitute identifier for time topreserve privacy of a user of the mobile device.
 5. The method of claim4, wherein the substitute identifier for time indicates a time with lessspecificity than the determined time.
 6. The method of claim 4, whereinthe substitute identifier for time is a representation of time lackingdate information, a time range or an hour of a week designation.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the electronic deviceor another electronic device, information from the updated devicedemographic profile to the mobile device.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the determining the estimated geographic location of the mobiledevice, the determining the time, the retrieving the locationdemographic profile, and the updating the device demographic profile areall performed on the electronic device.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the electronic device is the mobile device.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the determining the estimated geographic location ofthe mobile device and the determining the time are performed on theelectronic device and the retrieving the location demographic profile,the updating the device demographic profile and the updating thelocation demographic profile are performed on the another electronicdevice.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic device is themobile device and the another electronic device is a demographic serverremote from the mobile device.
 12. A non-transitory computer readablemedium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions whenexecuted by one or more processors operable to: retrieve a devicedemographic profile for a mobile device; determine an estimatedgeographic location of the mobile device using at least one of a globalpositioning system (GPS) or a Wi-Fi positioning system; assign asubstitute identifier for location to the estimated geographic locationof the mobile device, retrieve a location demographic profile for ageographic area based on the substitute identifier for location; updatethe device demographic profile for the mobile device based on thelocation demographic profile; update the location demographic profilebased on a plurality of device demographic profiles of a plurality ofmobile devices that visit geographic locations within the geographicarea, the plurality of mobile devices including the mobile device; anduse at least one of the updated location demographic profile or theupdated device demographic profile to provide a service to at least onemobile device, wherein at least the instructions that when executedupdate the device demographic profile and that update the locationdemographic profile are repeated in a feedback mechanism that improvesquality of the location demographic profile and the location demographicprofile.
 13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12,wherein the substitute identifier for location identifies geographiclocation with less specificity than the estimated geographic location.14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions when executed by one or more processors are furtheroperable to: assign a substitute identifier for time to the determinedtime, and wherein retrieval of the location demographic profile is basedon the substitute identifier for time to preserve privacy of a user ofthe mobile device.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 14, wherein the substitute identifier for time indicates a timewith less specificity than the determined time.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions that whenexecuted determine the estimated geographic location of the mobiledevice, determine the time, retrieve the location demographic profile,and update the device demographic profile are all executed on aprocessor of the mobile device.
 17. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 12, wherein the instructions that when executeddetermine estimated geographic location of the mobile device anddetermine the time are executed on a processor of the mobile device andthe instructions that when executed retrieve the location demographicprofile, update the device demographic profile and update the locationdemographic profile are executed on a processor of a demographic serverremote from the mobile device.
 18. A system configured to estimatedemographic information, comprising: a computing device operating as alocation server and configured to maintain information used to determinean estimated geographic location of a mobile device; and a computingdevice operating as a demographic server and configured with softwarethat when executed estimates demographic information, the softwareincluding: a device demographics profile logging module configured toreceive a substitute identifier for location that relates to theestimated geographic location of the mobile device and a substituteidentifier for time that relates to a time at which the mobile devicevisited the estimated geographic location, a location demographicsprofile retrieval module configured to retrieve a location demographicprofile including demographic information for a geographic areacorresponding to the substitute identifier for location and thesubstitute identifier for the time, a device demographics profile engineconfigured to update a device demographic profile for the mobile devicebased on the location demographic profile, and a location demographicsprofile engine configured to update the location demographic profilebased on a plurality of device demographic profiles of a plurality ofmobile devices that visit geographic locations within the geographicarea, the plurality of mobile devices including the mobile device, and alocation demographics summary process configured to send the updatedlocation demographic profile to the mobile device or a devicedemographic summary process configured to send the updated devicedemographic profile to the mobile device, wherein the devicedemographics profile engine and the location demographics profile engineprovide a feedback mechanism that improves quality of the locationdemographic profile and the location demographic profile.